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With and Without Chauncey Billups

Maybe the New York Knicks shouldn’t be all that worried that Chauncey Billups can’t play against the Boston Celtics in Game Two of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series on Tuesday night because of a strained left knee. The Celtics did much better against the Knicks during the regular season with Billups on the court than when he was out of the game.

Associated Press

The Knicks have done worse against the Celtics with Chauncey Billups on the court than when his backup, Toney Douglas, takes over.

A new stats feature at NBA.com, Stats Cube, allows for the breakdown of team performance against an opponent with and without one of its players on the court. Unfortunately it’s limited to stats from this past season and the playoffs that began last week, and the small sample size might serve up some flukes. Nonetheless, it’s interesting that Boston outscored the Knicks by 26 points per 48 minutes during the regular season when Billups was on court, but was outscored slightly when he rode the bench. Those trends reversed sharply for Billups’s backup, Toney Douglas.

These plus/minus stats may say more about who else was on the court during those times. And even if they are meaningful, they may not predict outcomes in any specific game: The Knicks did better with Billups on court in Game One than with Douglas, even though Billups shot just three for 11 from the floor. (Similarly, in their first playoff game the Mavs reversed their usual trend of doing much better when Portland’s Brandon Roy was on the bench.) Still, the numbers demonstrate that the Knicks have been a lot more successful against Boston with Billups watching the game from the sidelines, as he’ll do in Game Two.

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